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Published: June 18th 2008
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Sailing down the Mekong
View from our comfy car seats at the back of the boat on day 1 The slow boat was described as one of those quintessential once in a lifetime journeys that you had to take while out here. Beating all other forms of travel hands down (including speed boats which have an alarming tendancy to crash. A lot). So we booked our ticket and off we went.
And we weren't dissapointed- the views down the Mekong were breathtaking. We even managed to get ourselves some comfy car seats at the back of the old cargo boat by arriving early on the first morning- thanks to Kelly's impeccable organisation and punctuality of course (all the boats originally shipped cargo up and down the river- now they're mostly there for the tourists). At the end of day 1 (roughly 6 hours journey) we moored at a sleepy half-way town called Pakbeng. We found decent enough accomodation for around 200 bt for the night (approx 3 quid). Again, the views of the Mekong were something else from the hilly little village. We sampled the local fare- Larp ( a mis of mincemeat, corriander and noodles) which was interesting and then we hit the sack.
Day 2 and somehow the Lao boat people in charge managed to mis-calculate
King Me-Kong!
Biblical view of the mountains englufed by mist and clouds- during our stay in Pakbeng and insited on trying to cram around 90 people into a smaller boat for the second leg of the journey down to Louang Phabang. But the westerners were having none of it and voted with thier feet- everyone jumped ship onto and adjacent boat which was roomier. The locals soon caught on and before long we'd all managed to transfer ourselves and our bags onto this new boat. The journey itself wasn't as comfortable as the previous day's but we stuck it out until we arrived 6 hrs later in Louang Phabang- the country's old capital and 'the most Lao city in Lao'.
LP was beautiful- really quaint with lots of little streets and alleyways and full of art and craft markets/shops and stalls. You were also afforded amazing backdrops and views if you explored up the sacred hill (Phou Si) but all that would have to wait as we had to rush down the the capital city Vientiane for our volunteer work. Still, the plan was to come back up to LP on our way out to Cambodia in around a week.
So we left the next day on the bus (5-6 hrs), and I can honestly
Driving down to Louang Phabang
Pictures just don't do the surroundings justice... say (having done quite a lot of bus travel already) that this was by far THE most picuresque road journey we've ever experienced. The majority of it via the miles and miles of mountainous, windy roads- the scenery was quite simply breathtaking.
Vientiane itself was a strange city- no real centre or 'heart'to it- it just seemd a soulless mish mash of roads- there wasn't even one area that housed all the backpackers. Plus it was proper expensive, the value for money was really poor- we had to concede on the first night and go for a $19 room- not only was it the most expensive room we'd ever stayed in- it was rubbish for that price. Once we were settled in another, much more reasonable guest house (called Wonderland 2), we got in contact with Chris Mastaglio- our volunteeriing/rugby contact.
We set off to meet our new Geordie pal the next day and once we finally found the rugby office he introduced us to his colleagues and told us what we'd be doing for the next couple of days. The short story is that the national team which he was heavily involved with (and actually played for
The crowd perpares for the game
Kelly standing guard infront of the Cambodian team's dressing room himself- look it up in the rule book- i kid you not, you can play for another national side if you've lived in that country for longer than 3 years!) were hosting thier first ever home international match. It was against Cambodia and thier international rankings and thier standing in the Mekong Cup were riding on the game. There were going to be lots of important people at the game (to take place on the following day) as well as Lao TV crews etc. It was basically a little slice of Lao history and we were going to be lucky enough to be a part of it! It was the equivalent of a 6 Nations England vs France game back at Twickenham. Our first job was to try and get as many Falang (westerners to you and I) interested as possible.
So we set off in our Lao PDR rugby shirts with a stack of flyers and tried to sell the game as best we could for the rest of that day. With the best 'selling' speech we could muster, we frequented all the Western hangouts that we could find, went up to randoms on the street, and even
All change!
Kelly and I actually single-handedly 'make' the dressing rooms for both teams annoyed people who were minding thier own business in many an internet cafe- no one was safe! We distributed flyer after flyer giving it all the shpeil until we were selling the match in our sleep- and sleep well we certainly did that night!
The next day we made our way down to the rugby ground (which was more like a slightly shabby secondary school athletics stadium). It was a mess to say the least- the pitch was being marked out at the last minute, the VIP areas hadn't been set out and the stadium was still being cleaned- typical Asian organisation! So from the outset we were kept busy- from cleaning the match balls and going on water runs (200 bottles for the game) to more or less 'building' the dressing rooms for both squads (out of dusty, old classrooms) and setting out the advertising hoardings- it was all hands on deck! At one point I was even going to be raising the flag during the national anthems! Somehow the game got underway with only a few hiccups and the crowd (featuring a respectable spattering of white and Western faces I might add) were behind the home team
Raising the flag
The Cambodians during thier national anthem all the way. The women's games were first followed by the men's. And what a game. It was actually really exciting- and the standard was pretty good as far as I could tell. The game even went down to the last minute with Chris scoring a Johny Wlkinson style penalty in the dying seconds to clinch the game. It was a great atmosphere- and we were really happy for both the men's and women's teams (as they both won thier respective games) - a big deal for this little SE Asian country. It was also really nice and very satisfying to see many of the people that we'd approached and chastised the day before in attandance- a job well done!
At the drinks evening that night both teams sat down to a delicious buffet dinner and we got our chance to eat, drink and be merry- all on the Laos Rugby Federation. It was nice also to meet some of the team and see how the other half celebrate (much like the rugby players back home actually- it wasn't long before the squads were playing some rudimentary drinking games and dancing in thier underwear). It was a prvelage to
Swing low - jump high
An action shot of one of the line-outs be part of such a historic (albeit SE Asian history) occasion and although it wasn't your average volunteering session- we're so glad we had the opportunity to do it. Nice people, a really good match and a great way to do something out of the ordinary.
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